Microtonal music: Difference between revisions

=== Debates and usage ===

Many theorists caution against using the term "xenharmonic" for non-Western traditions that use non-12edo tunings. This is because the prefix "xen-" denotes otherness, so calling those traditions "xenharmonic" implies they are 'exotic', and that Western 12edo music is 'normal'.

Some theorists, for example, would argue that [[historical temperaments]] like meantone are not xenharmonic, because they follow almost identical rules to 12edo and sound very similar to it too. They would argue that only tunings which deviate significantly from 12edo, like [[11edo]], [[Bohlen-Pierce]] or [[Orwell]], are truly "xenharmonic".

The term "microtonal" is itself contested, because it implies that 12edo's step sizes are 'normal-sized tones' and that anything smaller than them is 'micro'. Of course in reality, there is nothing more or less 'normal' about 12edo's step size than any other system.

Aside from "microtonal", "xenharmonic" is the most common other term in broad use, and though its exact boundaries are debated, it is widely agreed among music theorists that "xenharmonic" is in some way a more strict version of "microtonal". "Microtonal" is something of a catch-all term, while "xenharmonic" refers to something more specific. But what exactly the boundaries of that 'something more specific' are continues to be debated.

Despite being named the "Xenharmonic Wiki", this wiki documents any and all kinds of musical tunings, no matter whether one counts them as xenharmonic or not.

== History ==

Sometime before 1900, composer [[Julián Carrillo|Julián Carrillo Trujillo]] performed experiments on a violin string, using a razor blade to achieve very precise intervals smaller than a [[semitone]], which he called "microtono." Over a decade later, the music theorist Maud MacCarthy Mann began using the term "microtone" to describe [[Indian]] sruti intervals that were smaller than a semitone, to differentiate them from [[quarter tone]]s.  

In the 1910's and 1920's, there was some discussion as to whether the term "microtone" was appropriate, or if competing terms, such as "heterotone" or "fraction-tone" etc., would be clearer. By the 1930's, with interest in American Blues music booming, and with people like [[Ivor Darreg]] becoming active with new tuning methods, many more terms were proposed, but the terms "microtonal" and "xenharmonic" were most prominent in the English language by the end of the decade.

== See also ==